Research market startup revs its engine of curation

Fund managers preparing to get pickier about the market insights they acquire under Mifid II

By

Fareed Sahloul

Updated: June 6, 2017 9:48 am GMT

A new marketplace for buying and selling investment research - which counts trading veteran Michael Spencer among its backers - has launched a curation service for fund managers preparing to get pickier about the insights they acquire.

RSRCHXchange's partnership with analytics firm Substantive Research is aimed at making it easier for fund managers to discover the research that is most relevant to them and then quickly purchase it. In a statement today, the group said that Substantive ResearchMatch's curation tool had now been integrated into the RSRCHXchange's cloud-based platform.

RSRCHXchange is one of the financial startups aiming to capitalise on new trading rules coming into force in Europe in January 2018. The European Union's revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or Mifid II, will force fund managers to split out the money they use to pay for investment research from the dealing commissions they pay their brokers.

The process, known as unbundling, represents one of the biggest changes to the way investment firms and banks do business with one another. It has led many market participants to predict the buyside will become more discerning about the research it consumes, in turn putting pressure on banks to prove the quality, and justify the cost, of their analysis.

In a statement today, RSRCHXchange's co-chief executive Vicky Sanders said: “With just seven months left before Mifid II unbundling comes into effect, clients are struggling with research pricing and ensuring that they subscribe to the right providers in time for the deadline next year. Our collaboration with Substantive provides a solution to these issues.”

Earlier this year, Euclid Opportunities, the fintech investment division of Michael Spencer’s NEX Group, acquired a stake in RSRCHXchange. The firm has also attracted financial industry veterans to its board, including Adam Toms, the former chief executive of agency broker Instinet Europe.